The Death Kiss is a 1933 American pre-Code mystery film starring David Manners as a crusading studio writer, Adrienne Ames as an actress, and Bela Lugosi as a studio manager. The thriller features three leading players from the previous year's Dracula (Lugosi, Manners, and Edward Van Sloan ), and was the first film directed by Edwin L. Marin . The film was produced by KBS Productions at Tiffany Pictures and released by Sono Art-World Wide Pictures . The film's main plot devices was reused for the 1946 French film That's Not the Way to Die starring Erich von Stroheim . The film is currently in the public domain .